Brian Van Reet was born in Houston and grew up there and in Maryland. Following the September 11 attacks, he left the University of Virginia, where he was an Echols Scholar, and enlisted in the U.S. Army as a tank crewman. He served in Iraq under stop-loss orders, achieved the rank of sergeant, and was awarded a Bronze Star for valor.
After an honorable discharge he studied at the University of Missouri and later the University of Texas. His fiction has been recognized with awards and fellowships from the Michener Center for Writers, Gulf Coast, and the Iowa Review, with stories and essays also appearing in the New York Times, the Daily Beast, the Washington Post, and in literary magazines and anthologies, including Fire and Forget. He has twice won the Texas Institute of Letters short story award. His first novel, Spoils, will be published in April.
After an honorable discharge he studied at the University of Missouri and later the University of Texas. His fiction has been recognized with awards and fellowships from the Michener Center for Writers, Gulf Coast, and the Iowa Review, with stories and essays also appearing in the New York Times, the Daily Beast, the Washington Post, and in literary magazines and anthologies, including Fire and Forget. He has twice won the Texas Institute of Letters short story award. His first novel, Spoils, will be published in April.
Genres: Literary Fiction
Brian Van Reet recommends
The Militia House (2023)
John Milas
"The Militia House seamlessly joins war and horror, reminding me of something Ambrose Bierce might have written, had he been born a Millennial, just as bleak, twice as earnest, and done a deployment with the U.S. Marines in Southwest Asia. This is not the bloodiest Afghanistan war novel I have read, but the most unsettling."